جوزيف كونراد: سيرة موجزة

Brief Lives

by Gavin Griffiths, توفيق الأسدي (Translator)

إن قوة كونراد كروائي تكمن في أنه لا يمكن وضعه ضمن التراث الروائي الأنغلو–الأمريكي، رغم جهود «ف. ر. ليفيز» في الأربعينات من القرن العشرين. إن تشككه وسخريته القادحة وتصميمه على كشف عيوب الناس والأنظمة التي يبنونها لحماية أنفسهم، فريدة من نوعها. كتب عن نفسه يقول:

«لقد دعيت بالكاتب البحري، وبكاتب المناطق الاستوائية، وبالكاتب الوصفي، وبالكاتب الرومانسي... وأيضاً بالكاتب الواقعي. ولكن الحقيقة هي أن كل اهتمامي كان منصباً على القيمة «المثالية» للأمور والأحداث والناس. هذا ولا أي شيء آخر».

كان الدفاع عن كونراد هو التاريخ اللاحق للقرن العشرين والسنوات الأولى من القرن الحادي والعشرين. ما تزال «قلب الظلام» تلقي الضوء على أنظمة الرعب والبربرية التي ابتليت بها آخر مائة سنة من عصرنا. إن تحذيرات «نوسترومو» بشأن السلطة التي لا ترحم التي تتمتع بها «المصالح المادية» ما تزال تُراعى في الشرق الأوسط، وعدم قدرة الدول «المتمدنة» على فهم الإرهاب العنيف أو محاربته بشكل فعال هو أكبر كشف لرواية «العميل السري».

لا يوجد كاتب واحد في العصور الحديثة يجمع مثل هذه الحدة والنفوذ. وكما أمل هو في «زنجي النارسيوس»، فإن أجمل وصاياه كانت:

«إيقاف الأيدي المشغولة بالعمل في الأرض لبرهة، وإجبار الرجال المفتونين برؤية الأهداف البعيدة، على النظر للحظة إلى الرؤية المحيطة بهم من الشكل واللون، من نور الشمس والظلال....».

كما أمل كونراد، فهو يجعلنا «نرى». ولسوء الحظ، فإن ما «نراه» لا يجلب أي سلوان أو راحة إلا نادراً: إنه يمنحنا لمحة عما سننساه بسرعة، وما ننساه على نحو يشكل خطراً علينا.

Genres: Biography

130 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2008

Reviews

[Smiley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having been daunted by one or two of his formidable biographies since some years ago, I found reading this book surprisingly manageable and enjoyable due to its nine chapters; Chapters 1-8 depicting topics followed by yearly periods, for example: Poland, 1856-74, France, 1874-8, England and the Merchant Service, 1878-89, etc. However, we should not be readily complacent from its seemingly reading manageability since each chapter's content varies as we can see from approximate pages within the brackets that follow its first to third chapters having the most pages: The Professional Novelist, 1895-1903 (26 1/5), The Master, 1903-11 (17 1/10), and Later Conrad, 1911-21 (14 1/2) in which we could design our prior plan for our concentration duly followed by our enjoyment from the author's superbly written text cited/taken from ten books as references in the bibliography.

While reading it, I have noticed something different from others in that numerous related quoted extracts from Conrad's works and his critics have been generously employed in every chapter and I know that this technique of quoting appropriate extracts keeps me alert with supported evidence that clarifies his points mentioned before; therefore, I can go on reading with arguable enjoyment and revelation from newly-informed quotes literarily interesting to me. For instance:

Cervoni was charismatic and became the model for the eponymous hero Nostromo:

In his eyes lurked a look of perfectly remorseless irony, as though he had been provided with an extremely experienced soul; and the slightest distension of the nostrils would give to his bronzed face a look of extraordinary boldness. (p. 18)

When he began Almayer's Folly, he claims that it was by accident:

The conception of a planned book was entirely outside my mental range when I sat down to write; the ambition of being an author had never turned up amongst these gracious imaginary existences one creates fondly for oneself... (p. 32)

It may be that Galsworthy's innocent cast of mind appealed to Conrad. In his second letter from the Torrens, the future Nobel laureate wrote:

The first mate is a Pole called Conrad and is a capital chap, though queer to look at; he is a man of travel and experience in many parts of the world, and has a fund of yarns on which I draw freely. He has been right up the Congo and all around Malacca and Borneo ... to say nothing of a little smuggling in the days of his youth.... (p. 38)

Moreover, amazingly, this book has proved itself with rich, illuminating and delightful information I have never known before, for example:

Why did Conrad choose to write in English? There is no pat answer. His own response was simple. He had been thinking in English for years, he loved the language and it never occurred to him to write in either Polish or French. Besides, the Polish novel was, in 1889, still in its infancy. Psychologically, it may have been appealing to Conrad to master a craft. ... (p. 33)

Heart of Darkness remains Conrad's most celebrated chef d'oeuvre, not least because of Coppola's fanciful film adaptation, Apocalypse Now. It is a tale with something for everybody: exotic travel, racism, metaphysics and politics are all presented with shifting ambiguity. (pp. 59-60)

Because we live in a world of daily terrorist outrages, of casual suicide bombings, of beliefs that are happily wedded to acts of cruelty and violence. The Secret Agent is Conrad's most popular novel at the beginning of the twenty-first century. Only a few weeks after 9/11, journalists were quoting Conrad with glee. Once more, he seems a century or so ahead of his time. (p.80)

Interestingly, there is a chronological list of works (p. 115) from which I would cite its first five as follows:

1895 Almayer's Folly
1896 An Outcast of the Islands
1897 The Nigger of the Narcissus
1898 Tales of Unrest (including 'The Return')
1898-9 Heart of Darkness(serialised in Blackwood's)
etc.

To conclude, this recently-updated biography is highly recommended to those Conrad newcomers since they should read this book as an essential introductory guide to know Conrad himself as well as numerous sources of information related to his works. This approach would help them gain more familiarity toward him and thus gradually learn to enjoy reading him with awe and respects as one of the great English authors in the 20th century.

[Stuart Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short, pithy and entertaining. Griffiths' text covers both the life and literary output of the subject very well. The book does however reveal some major plot points of Conrad's novels so should be approached with caution by readers unfamiliar with his work. A shame really, as this would otherwise be an ideal introduction.

[جليس الكتاب · Rating 3 out of 5]

مختصر حياة كونراد

[Danielle · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I only read it to help me research for a school assignment. But it did give me all the information I needed!